The use of racks to hold rifles and other sporting equipment, such as bows, fishing rods, etc, is well known. Typically, racks used to hold sporting equipment include a generally U-shaped body for receiving a portion of the rifle stock, and a strap attachable to both sides of the U-shaped body and positionable over the portion of the stock. The strap serves to hold the stock within the U-shaped body and prevent accidental removal.
One problem with the existing racks is that they are not suited to carrying multiple objects. More particularly, existing racks are designed so that an object can be placed within the center portion of the U-shaped body, with a strap placed over the object, thereby holding it in place. However, multiple objects are not easily restrained at the same time, especially if the objects are smaller than the U-shaped area. Manufacturers of existing racks have attempted to solve this problem simply by offering mounts of multiple racks. Thus, if a tool and a gun are to be carried by the same vehicle, a separate set of racks is needed for each object. This adds cost to accomplishing this task because multiple sets of racks are required. In addition, the vehicle may have limited mounting space, thus preventing the use of multiple sets of mounting racks.
Yet another problem with existing racks is that limited use of the rack is achieved by only using the U-shaped area of the rack for storage. That is, the potential exists to carry one or more objects outside of the U-shaped area of the racks as well as to carry multiple objects within the U-shaped area of the rack; unfortunately, prior art racks fail to exploit this available carrying potential.
Still yet another problem with existing racks is that many of them are not flexible. Accordingly, if the object to be restrained is wider than the U-shaped area of the rack, the object cannot be restrained and carried using the rack. Likewise, if the object is substantially narrower than the U-shaped area of the rack, it will either be carried loosely, or the rack simply cannot be used.
To overcome the disadvantages associated with the prior art, there is a need for a device which securely holds multiple objects within one carrier. In addition, there is a need for a device that is flexible and can be adjusted to accept items wider and narrower than a standard U-shaped gun rack.